Samsung Electronics issued a lengthy apology after posting disappointing results, an unusual admission by the world’s largest memory maker that it is grappling with a potential crisis.
The company will review its organisational culture and processes, Jun Young-hyun, the newly appointed head of its chip business, said in a statement. “Rather than relying on short-term solutions, we will focus on reinforcing our long-term competitiveness,” he said. “These are testing times.” The world’s biggest maker of both memory and smartphones reported preliminary operating profit of around 9.1 trillion won (US$6.8 billion) in the September quarter versus the 11.5 trillion won projected. A one-time cost related to provisions for performance-related bonuses weighed on earnings, it said.
Revenue came to 79 trillion won, compared with expectations for 81.57 trillion won.
A Samsung store in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Bloomberg
Samsung plans to provide a full financial statement with net income and divisional breakdowns later this month. “We have caused concerns about our technical competitiveness, with some talking about the crisis facing Samsung,” Jun said. “As leaders of the business, we take full responsibility for this.” The company’s stock fell as much as 1.8 per cent Tuesday morning in Seoul.Samsung shares have slid more than 20 per cent this year as the company struggles in key markets. It has fallen behind rival SK Hynix in memory chips used with Nvidia processors for artificial intelligence (AI) development and has shown little progress against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in outsourced production of custom-made chips. Analysts have slashed their price targets on Samsung to factor in the chip division’s struggles in recent weeks. Macquarie in a September 25 report cut Samsung from outperform to neutral and lowered its target price to 64,000 won from 125,000 won.
Samsung has fallen behind rival SK Hynix in the memory chip market. Photo: Bloomberg
Micron Technology, the largest US maker of memory chips, reported last month that demand for AI gear will help boost revenue more than projected.
But Samsung is in the unusual position of playing catch-up to SK Hynix, which took the lead in producing the high-bandwidth memory chips paired with Nvidia’s AI accelerators. Korea’s largest company, in contrast, has faced delays in getting approval for its most advanced HBM.
Samsung abruptly replaced the head of its chip business this year, and newly appointed chief Jun Young-hyun warned the company had to change its workplace culture or get caught in a “vicious cycle”.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company has underperformed other AI stocks and the benchmark Kospi index. It has begun laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce global headcount by thousands of jobs, Bloomberg News reported last week.
Samsung has reduced the size of its workforce in the past as it navigated a notoriously cyclical memory chip market.
